Schell of a Man

At the beginning of all of my oral classes, I have a section called "What's New" where students must stand up and tell me something new that is happening--either with themselves or in the world. For the past month every student has begun their presentation with the phrase "the weather is getting colder and colder..." (as in "The weather is getting colder and colder. Last week the WTO conference began in Hong Kong..."). So I thought it is a good enough way to begin this post. It has been an action packed week and a half. I'm not even sure where to begin. I guess I will start with tonight [Thursday] and move backwards. [The photo above is of my favorite class]

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...Oh wait
Tonight I attended the large Yuanpei College English Christmas Party. I was one of the V.I.P. guests, of course. It's gotten so bad that I won't go anywhere unless I'm assured V.I.P. treatment. This means a front row seat with fresh fruit and candy. But with preveilge also comes responsibilty. My entertainment skills were called upon several times. First I was a contestant in a dance competition (which I won with the help of my fellow foreign teacher, Wendy). Next I did a drawing for a raffle, then I played a game where I stomped on a balloon and got a prize. Finally, what party (or any type of gathering, for that matter) would be complete with a song or two from the resident "lao wai" (foreigner)? So I graced the crowd with my pop-folk-fusion rendition of "Santa Claus is coming to town" as well as an indie-rock-meets-John-Tesh version of "Have yourself a merry little Christmas." Finally I ended with a straight forward version of "Deck the halls" with the crowd singing the "Fa-la-la's" (or the "Fa-ra-ra's" I should say). Overall, I think it was a hit. There were probably about four or five hundred people there and at least a quarter of them were my students so it was a lot of fun. I had a huge cheering section, with about fifty girls from my classes all cramming in to sit right behind me. It was like my high school dream come true.

The West Lake Friendship Award
Well it's about time! After all the weeks of hard work, my contribution to this country has finally been recognized by the People's government. On Tuesday, I went to Hangzhou (the provincial capital) to recieve the West Lake Friendship Award, which is given to outstanding foreign teachers for their contribution to Zhejing province. Actually, the award wasn't for me, it was being given to another professor at our university. However, that professor had already gone back the US, and they figured one American is as good as another. So they sent me into an awards ceremony with no more instructions than "Your name is P.S. Corbett." Let me paint you a picture: P.S. Corbett (as I found out later) is a fifty-seven year old professor of math and science. Furthermore, I wasn't told anything about the event until I arrived. All of the other fourteen award-winners were (1. a lot older than me, and 2.) wearing suits and ties. There I was in a pear of jeans, an untucked button-down and my SJU zip-up. I had to sit for five hours in a freezing auditorium making small talk with a bunch of other professors who were amazed that I already had my Ph.D and was teaching here. Thank goodness for the year at CSB/SJU that taught me how to B.S. with Ph.D's.

This ain't no Great Clips
Bryan and I often refer to life here as a roller coaster, hitting many high's and low's, often hitting both several times a day. But I would have to say that the highest point in my time here was last Friday. After cocktails and the Chinese version of the McLeher Newshour, Bryan and I headed out for the evening. We first went to Winner's Pizza, where we've recently discovered they have an "American Special" which is a peperoni and mozzarella cheese pizza--mmm, just like mom used to make. During dinner we discussed going to the bar afterwards but instead made an infinitely better choice: we decided to go get our hair washed. It was about 10:30 pm when we entered a posh little hair salon near campus. For the next half-hour we not only had our hair washed, but had our scaples, necks, backs, and arms massaged. Then we had our hair styled by a guy who, I must admit, really knew what he was doing. We left feeling like a million bucks, though the whole thing only cost 30 RMB ($3.75).

Judge not, lest ye want to sing as well
One week ago, last Thursday, I had to judge a competition between the members of different dormitories. The competition included English speeches, songs, plays, dances, and some other miscellanous events. All in all, it wasn't too bad, though sitting for three and a half hours in a freezing student center wasn't my first choice of activities for the night. I didn't even mind singing for them, again ("We Wish You a Merry Christmas"). The only rough part of the night was the portion of the evening where all six teams put on short plays...in Chinese. Now I was one of only three judges and I was supposed to score each team on things like content and creativity. I was completely lost. So I did what I normally do here, and just faked it. I probably threw off the whole competition and ruined some poor girl's dream of having the best dorm room on campus. But those are the life and death situations you have do deal with every day when you're a foreign teacher in China... [This photo is actually from another singing competition I judged with Bryan back around Thanksgiving]

Give 'em something to talk about
Going back two days more, that is Tuesday of last week, I was a special guest on "The Talk Show on Western Culture." This was a interview-based program put on by the Foreign Language Department. I was there representing the United States. There was also the dean of the English department who had spent a year in England, as well as a French teacher and a German teacher. The show was half in English and half in Chinese. I spoke about the differences in college life between China and the US. I also talked about Christmas traditions in the US. And of course, what talk show would be complete without the white guy singing "Jingle Bells"? I tried to do a duet with the dean of the English departhment but it didn't turn out so well. I guess I will just have to stick to my solo career.

So that's the news from Shaoxing for now. I hope you all have a merry Christmas.